BOOKS
QUICK READS
Samples of great new writing, compiled by Kyle Smith
ONE NATION
UNDER DOG
By Michael Schaffer
(Henry Holt)
NONFICTION
For those who would
like their pets to wander
outdoors—but fear the
vermin or burglars who
might take advantage of
the classic swinging pet
door—there are devices
to mount on collars
that can electronically
open the door. No
device, no entry. “Your
pet will think it’s on the
Starship Enterprise,”
boasts Power Pet,
one automatic-door
manufacturer.
(FROM TOP) TOM MACDONALD; ALEXA ROBBINS
GENERATION OF VIPERS A title that really sinks its teeth in
The Book That
Changed My Life
By Tom Robbins
Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, which I encountered at age 18, woke me
up, turned my brain inside out, and launched me on the trajectory of reverent
irreverence that I’ve traveled ever since. Up until that point, the values—
social, political, and religious—instilled in me by my Southern heritage had
never been seriously challenged. Wylie’s philosophical rant pulled the rug
out from under those belief systems in such a way as to fracture them, yet
leave me feeling better than ever about being alive. Having been both shaken
and exhilarated by Wylie, I was somehow inspired to weave this newfound
liberating skepticism into the wild and woolly fabric of my innate literary
imagination (I started writing at age 5) and my evolving worldview. I don’t
know if I would have been any less open to Zen, French avant-gardism,
psychedelic drugs, and so on had it not been for Generation of Vipers, but I
can say for certain that it was the lobster claw (succulent and dangerous) in
the tuna casserole of my pupilage.
Tom Robbins’s latest book, B Is for Beer, is out this month from Ecco.
A light dissertation
on the $43 billion pet
industry and how our
animal buddies provide,
as Schaffer says, “a fun-house mirror reflection
of our changing notions
about such universal
subjects as family,
health, and friendship.”
BUFFALO
LOCKJAW
By Greg Ames
(Hyperion)
FICTION
Enormous hairy
armchairs squat in the
corners of the room
like unhealthy gorillas
at the zoo. There’s a
prickly green-and-
ochre plaid sofa, a
garbage-picked futon,
and two mismatched
bar stools—one tall,
one short. Stains on
everything that can
be stained. Seeds and
stems ground into
dust by boot heels. A
poster of the Himalayan
mountains on one
wall. Poster of Hendrix
(ripped), near the kitchen
entrance, flapping in
the weak breath of the
overhead fan. Always
hot, stuffy—wet-towel
humid. Poor lighting.
No ventilation.
In a first novel that’s
part Garden State, part
A Heartbreaking Work
of Staggering Genius,
a Brooklyn greeting-card writer returns
home to Buffalo, his
burnout friends, and his
Alzheimer’s-stricken
mother.
FLOTSAM-
ETRICS AND
THE FLOATING
WORLD
By Curtis Ebbesmeyer
and Eric Scigliano
(Smithsonian)
NONFICTION
Unless the sea’s surface
is glassy smooth,
as the North Pacific
almost never is, plastic
particles mix in the
waves and become
virtually invisible to the
eye. You can fly above
a garbage patch (and
if you’ve flown to Hawaii,
you probably have) and
never know it’s there.
Nevertheless, two years
ago the climatologist
Jerry Norton asked me
a provocative question:
Might the garbage
floating in a patch alter
the reflection and re-
radiation of light enough
for satellites to read the
difference from space?
If so, it might finally be
possible to precisely
measure the extent of
the garbage patches.…
Oceanographer
Ebbesmeyer sails off
on a voyage through
the surprising history
of flotsam. Columbus,
for example, developed
the idea that land lay
much closer across the
Atlantic than anyone
expected by studying
flotsam, and Edgar Allan
Poe unwittingly played a
key role when his story
“MS. Found in a Bottle”
touched off a fad for
seaborne mail.
